Like all those named in the suit the Hachette Book Group publishes quite a bit of crime fiction, stories you’d think would give them some insight into why your savvier white-collar criminals don’t preannounce their intention to engage in illegal business practices in the business section of the New York Times. And yet here we are.

So if you’d like a good look at what naked greed, fear and stupidity looks like, there you are.

‘Traditional bookstores, which have been under pressure from the Internet for years, fear that the price gap between the physical books they sell and e-books from Amazon will now grow so wide they will lose what is left of their market. … “It will look like blue skies,” said Lorraine Shanley, a publishing consultant. “But in the longer term, competition erodes as the spread between e-books and physical books grows greater. There will be fewer retail stores.”’

Welcome to modernity, guys. I’d pity you, except you made sure that I already hate you.